National park blasts visitors after black bear feeding forces euthanasia: ‘Poor decisions’

A Wyoming national park is calling out parkgoers whose “poor decisions” led to the euthanization of a black bear.

Park staff at Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park put down the animal last Friday after a “concerning pattern of behavior” from both humans and the animal that escalated over several days.

The bear had approached visitors near the park’s southwestern Delta Lake earlier this year, a turquoise body of water that sits at 9,000 feet elevation.

But it wasn’t clear whether this was an isolated occurrence or if the bear had been food-conditioned, learning to find meals near people.

“That changed last week,” the park wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post.

The bear had received multiple human food rewards and repeatedly approached people in the area.

The mammal was unusually difficult to scare away from the people, staff found, following increased monitoring.

Park managers determined that the bear’s escalating proximity to humans, repeated food rewards and more food-conditioned behavior created an “unacceptable safety risk.

The bear was darted before it was euthanized at the backcountry lake and then the carcass was flown out of the area the next morning.

“We need to be clear - this bear was lethally removed because of poor decisions made by park visitors,” the park wrote. “It is everyone’s responsibility to help keep bears wild: Never leave food unattended, even for a moment.”

Parkgoers and campers should gather all belongings if a bear approaches, and especially food items.

“Help us keep bears wild by making the right choice every time,” the park said.

This isn’t the first time a bear has been euthanized after being food-conditioned.

A bear in Montana’s Glacier National Park was euthanized last summer after entering a vehicle and at least one building in search of food and another was euthanized in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho-based Yellowstone National Park after tearing down properly stored food bags and crushing a tent.

"We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from gaining access to human food in all areas of the park,” Kerry Gunther, Yellowstone bear management biologist, said last July.

"But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to make the difficult decision to remove the bear from the population to protect people and property."